18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 33

[cahn]

And, I mean, it doesn't have to be just 18th century characters, either!

(also, waiting for Yuletide!)

Comments

Re: La Chétardie's instructions

[mildred_of_midgard]

You know what this reminds me of? The instructions to Morgenstern for his trip to England in the later 1730s, only for "envoy", substitute "spy", err, "member of the Prussian court".

Exactly what it reminded me of! And as you may recall, what *that* reminded me of was Fritz sending Algarotti to Turin with instructions to spy and not let on that he was working for Fritz.

BTW, given that an envoy must speak with the authority of his government sooner or later, just when was Le Chétardie supposed to drop this act?

What the instructions say is,

As long as he can, he will play the role of a simple traveler to try, before having any character, to determine the taste of the King of Prussia.

"Before having any character" is using "character" in its technical diplomatic sense, i.e. presenting himself as officially representing the French court.

There's no hurry, since,

It is not that it should be a question of entering into any negotiations, but only of being within reach of diminishing the ascendancy which General Seckendorff has progressively acquired over the mind of the King of Prussia.

So I assume the ideal situation is that Chétardie first gets on FW's good side, earns some trust/influence, and *then* reveals who he is. Since that didn't happen, though, now I'm curious at what point he did reveal (or was exposed) who had sent him!

and the idea was that Suhm was to adopt a similar persona.

If so, that did not work! However, I'm reminded that felis found that Suhm joined the anti-sobriety society, so maybe you're right, maybe he was supposed to try.

However, remember that Seckendorff doesn't come along in an official capacity until 1726 (to lure FW away from the Alliance of Hanover and into the Alliance of Vienna), and so it's only 3 years later that the Saxons are sending other envoys (Polenz in Sep 1729, then Lynar in Jan 1730) to try to undermine Seckendorff's influence. It probably took a couple of years before everyone realized just how successful Seckendorff was being, and that they needed to counter him. So it may not be that Suhm's 10 years as envoy were ten years of outstanding failure.

And due to the FW-Suhm "I'll have you hanged!" kerfluffle in early 1728, as we discussed, it might have been a point of pride for August to send Suhm back and make him stay; otherwise it looks like his envoys are being dictated by FW. That could account for the year, year and a half before Polenz is sent.